The Aga Khan Trust for Culture in Pakistan

Digital tech advances historic conservation

Often better known through its component parts – such as the Aga Khan University in Karachi and the Aga Khan Trust for Culture in Lahore – the Aga Khan Development Network (AKDN) actually provides a broad range of services in Pakistan – and has been doing so for over 100 years.

In all of its endeavours, AKDN has tried to create a critical mass of integrated development activities that offer people in a given area not only a rise in income, but a broad, sustained improvement in the overall quality of life. It encourages self-reliance and a long-term view of development. In fact, many areas that received AKDN support in the past have well-educated communities that are now masters of their own development, building their own schools and health centres and taking other measures to care for themselves and those less fortunate.

Each year, 1.3 million people living in some of the poorest rural and urban areas of the developing world have better access to safe drinking water, sanitation and sewage facilities provided by the AKDN.